Chapter 5: Strange Soul Fluctuations (Part 2)

Li Ran said, “Everyone should know the trick to harvesting String Shell Wood. Let’s not waste such a precious material.”
Guo Shier smiled and said, “I think we all do.”
Fan Zhen also said, “I understand.”
Yang Miluo chuckled, “Heh, this is basic. We should all understand it and not waste such a valuable material.”
Guo Shier said, “Fortunately, we arrived early. Otherwise, not a single piece of this String Shell Wood would be left. By the way, Brother Li Ran, you have a sealed secret realm where we can transplant some of it.”
Li Ran nodded and said, “I’ll transplant the younger String Shell Woods. As for the mature ones, everyone can collect them for themselves.”
Guo Shier discussed it with the old man Shuai and said, “Okay, let’s do it together.” He dived into the woods by the riverbank and began selecting suitable String Shell Woods.
There was a specific procedure for harvesting String Shell Wood—it was by no means as simple as cutting down trees to collect wood, as that would destroy it. To harvest it, one first had to collect its leaves and branches. Only after that could the entire tree trunk be cut down. The bark also had to be collected. Later, when time allowed, tree sap could be extracted from the leaves, and the bark needed to be purified using special runes.
First, the tree trunk was cut into large pieces, then the moisture inside was removed. The purified sap was injected into the trunk, which was placed in a storage rune space for a while before the moisture was removed again. Only then was the String Shell Wood considered nearly processed. This processed wood served as the base for wood runes, capable of holding powerful runes.
There were hundreds of mature trees in this forest of String Shell Woods, including some that were a thousand years old, with diameters of seven or eight meters and heights of hundreds of meters. Harvesting a single tree took at least ten minutes. Guo Shier was the fastest. He simply used his Moon Blade to cut the tree at the root and placed it in the altar for the old man Shuai to process.
When it came to collecting materials, speed was key—those who were slow would end up with nothing. Everyone worked at lightning speed. Soon, others noticed that Guo Shier was collecting extremely fast. While others had just harvested one tree, he had already collected over a dozen. So everyone followed his example and began cutting down the large trees directly and placing them in the altar.

A few hours later, all the string snail wood was collected, even the young saplings were taken away. Guo Shier also gathered some saplings and placed them in planting talismans, planning to transplant them once he had his own secluded realm. In this world, he had already collected a vast amount of supplies—ranging from food to materials to plants—so many that even he couldn’t keep track.

Li Ran smiled and said, “This stuff is very useful for me too. Hehe, it’s truly rare.”

Guo Shier said, “I took a look just now. With this material… if used to make a set of furniture, haha, that would be absolutely beautiful…”

Li Ran replied, “Make a set of furniture? You’re really bold. This is string snail wood—the best and most precious material for making wooden talismans. Would you really use it for furniture?”

Guo Shier said, “A single large tree, with such a huge volume, can only produce a hundred or so string snail wood talismans, as the material needs to be condensed and compressed. But for furniture, one tree can make dozens of sets. What’s there not to do?”

Li Ran laughed and said, “If you like it, then go ahead and make it. I certainly won’t do such a thing.”

String snail wood was better than any wood Guo Shier had seen in his past life. If used to make furniture, it would undoubtedly be exquisite. However, this idea only flashed through his mind—he wouldn’t really make furniture, as that would indeed be a waste of such fine material.

After collecting all the string snail wood, the group set off again. They began to pay attention to the forests along the shore, wondering what other treasures might appear.

Not far ahead, they discovered a massive waterfall complex. It consisted of two layers of large waterfalls, with a great deal of mist rising, forming a huge rainbow under the sunlight. Guo Shier said, “What beautiful waterfalls…” The widest part of the waterfalls reached over a thousand meters, with drops falling from heights of dozens to seven or eight hundred meters, intersecting in a pattern that resembled a huge ink painting.

The thunderous sound of the falling water was awe-inspiring. Guo Shier flew above the waterfalls, allowing him to admire them from various angles. Li Ran knew what Guo Shier was doing, but Yang Miluo and Fan Zhen Tong didn’t understand. Fan Zhen Tong asked, “Elder, what is Shier doing?”

Li Ran smiled and said, “He’s just simply enjoying the scenery.”

Yang Miluo wondered, “Scenery? What’s there to see? It’s just waterfalls, right?” He couldn’t possibly know that people from Earth would be interested in scenery. In his past life, Guo Shier had even spent money on trips just to see the scenery. Li Ran, having also lived on Earth, naturally understood Guo Shier’s actions.

After a moment, Guo Shier returned and said, “Let’s go. The scenery here is really nice.” Beyond the waterfall cluster lay a barrier lake, with sparse ancient trees on its surface. The view here was even better. Guo Shier sighed and thought to himself, “If this were on Earth, it would definitely be a famous scenic spot.” They flew forward along the barrier lake, and after about an hour, they arrived at a mountain ridge. Li Ran landed first and said, “Wait a moment. Let’s first check which path is more suitable.” The ridge was at a high altitude, offering a clear view of the surroundings. After observing for a while, Li Ran said, “We must climb over the mountain on the left… going along the mountainside.” Guo Shier looked up and saw a very tall peak, with clouds and mist surrounding its base. Above the mist was a large area of snow, and there were trees halfway up the mountain, with jagged rocks and thick layers of ice and snow above that. He said, “We need to be careful when going around there; avalanches can easily occur here.” Li Ran said, “Climbing over this mountain should allow us to sense that fluctuation more clearly.” Guo Shier felt carefully and said, “The fluctuation here seems slightly stronger than outside. It seems quite far from the source, so I’m not sure how much longer it will take to reach it.” Li Ran smiled and said, “We’ll definitely make it. I guess this journey won’t be peaceful.” Guo Shier said, “It’s good if it’s not peaceful. The truly advanced mutated talisman beasts are left to Brother Li Ran. The rest can be handled by us, hehe.” With such an expert by his side, he wasn’t worried at all—this was much safer than venturing on his own. Yang Miluo and Fan Zhen also smiled. Following a professional who had surpassed the ninth-tier altar, they felt secure and hardly needed to fear anything. Li Ran said, “Sometimes, we still have to rely on ourselves. I can’t take care of you all completely.” Guo Shier said, “Look over there… that tree is so strange!” Li Ran narrowed his eyes and looked, saying, “It’s indeed strange… How can a tree grow like that?” Guo Shier asked, “Should we go take a look?” All of them noticed that the trees in the distant valley were very peculiar, as if cut by a knife, with neatly trimmed tops like a lawn. The mountain slopes on both sides were also distinctive, completely bare except for large patches of exposed rock. There were faint, sharp howling sounds, as if someone was crying, which was eerie to hear. Li Ran nodded and said, “A place this special is worth checking out. Let’s go!” He flew toward that valley.

After a dozen minutes, they could clearly see the trees in the valley. Li Ran exclaimed in surprise, “What is this? These trees are so strange… Uh, it’s the wind! Let’s go down—the wind up there is terrifying!”
The wind above wasn’t just terrifying; countless wind blades circled in the air, creating a deadly cutting force. Guo Shier casually threw the body of a level-seven mutated talisman beast, which was instantly torn into bloody fragments. He was shocked and said, “Damn, that’s insane…”
Yang Miluo remarked, “It’s naturally formed… Truly amazing.”
Li Ran warned, “Don’t fly too high…” Before he could finish speaking, there was a series of clanging noises, and Fan Zhen tumbled down from above in a mess. Relying on the super-strong defensive power of the seventh-tier altar, he had tried to test the strength of the wind blades and was knocked down. Fortunately, it was only at the edge; if he had gone deeper, it was uncertain whether he could have withstood it.
Fan Zhen said, still shaken, “It’s powerful!”
The four of them could only hover at a height of dozens of meters, watching the wind blades swirling above. Guo Shier wondered, “This place is so strange. Not a single gust of wind reaches down here; it’s confined to the upper half, as if blocked by some invisible barrier…”
The ancient trees here could only grow to over seventy meters tall, after which their tops disappeared neatly, forming a large flat area resembling green grass. However, nothing could cross this flat surface. From Guo Shier’s tests, only an extremely powerful mutated talisman beast could withstand such fierce wind blade attacks.
Guo Shier shifted his attention to the forest below and said, “This forest… Well, I have a strange feeling. To be precise… it’s a sense of danger. Do you guys feel it too?”
Li Ran replied, “I do too! Haha, strangely, I feel that danger too.”
Guo Shier became excited and said, “Shall we go in and take a look?”
Everyone knew that in this world, the more dangerous a place, the better things there were—it just depended on whether they had the strength to get them.